I’m now on my 4th day with the Sony A7. It’s not been a bed of roses, but I’m pleased to report that the camera and me are finally starting to work hand in hand. Before the end of the week I’m hoping to be shooting it mindlessly of its newness and flavor of the month status. I’m nearing the point where it’s just gonna be another tool in the box.

So I guess the best way to talk about the camera further is just to share pictures taken with it. For those who’d be jumping in right now, I’ll say again that I’m a strict jpeg shooter, that I tweak everything in CS3 (and occasionally Snapseed), and that I own, nor plan to own, no native FE lens. My lens stable is composed of adapted legacy glass, 2 native E (NEX) lenses, and one A mount fast telephoto lens, coupled with the LA-EA4.

Check the EXIF if needed, but I think most of these are at 3200.

Properly exposed, ISO3200 on the A7 equates ISO800 on the NEX7

Our dog, Cannelle, lives in sheer adoration of my husband

ISO1600, clean as a whistle

I don’t mean to sound obsessed with high ISO, because it’s really not all there is about a camera. But this is December, drab weather, no light, and most of the day spent indoors due to the cold. Low light performance is going to look crucial for the next few months.

If you want the A7 to do its high ISO magic, you gotta pay close attention to 1) white balance (which my unit has fairly big issues with) and 2) exposure. Don’t underexpose those suckers, and noise will stay at bay.

ALL the shots in this post were made with either the PEN F38, or the Minolta 50/1.4 MD.

Both are excellent, fast, and sharp lenses, that work wonders on the A7

See that nasty greenish cast ? I did my best to get rid of it in post, but some remains

Nice fall off of in focus zones, that’s what FF is about

I said it before but it bears repeating, manual focusing is *extremely* easy, even more so than on NEX, with both the gorgeous LCD and huge EVF of the A7

My baby was fidgeting non stop, but half a second of stillness and I nailed her

I kept the best for last

So hopefully, from now on, I’ll just be shooting this camera as I always have all the others. Because once a camera has proven to be technically worthy, there is no point “testing” it any further, it’s deemed “good for service” 😉

8 Responses to Taming the Sony A7 – a work in progress

Thanks a lot for these reviews, Marla. I’m getting my A7 on Monday, and your words here have done nothing but made me more anxious to start putting it through its paces. Though I don’t shoot much of your kind of excellent portraiture, I have little doubt that the A7 will work just as well for my kind of shooting, and your insights so far have been very valuable, and encouraging.

Well to give you an idea of how bad WB was on mine, I routinely had to bring it ALL the way to the blue side, and quite a bit down on the Magenta axis, and yet sometimes the Amber/green cast wouldn’t quite be taken care of !!

Don’t they !? The new unit is here and the IQ seems much better than on the first one, I’m quite pleased, and thrilled with Amazon’s outstanding service. I really would love to see pictures of your 10 yr old, I have to check how I can allow pictures in comments !